THE THING: LIBERTY LEGION

I know I've mentioned here on my blog that Jack Kirby is my all time favorite comic book artist. And I'm pretty sure I've stated that Roy Thomas is my all time favorite comic book writer. If I haven't, consider it told here and now. Also among my favorite comic book characters are Ben Grimm, The Thing. I'm a huge fan of Thomas's wonderful mid-70s Marvel series, THE INVADERS, in which Captain America, Bucky, The Human Torch, Toro and Namor, the Sub-Mariner (along with other Golden Age stalwarts), fought Nazis and other menaces in World War I EuropeI. And boy, would I love to see an INVADERS movie on the big screen. It was established in the film CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER that the original android version of the Human Torch exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, there's two out of the big three characters you'd need to make this work. It'll probably never happen but this movie is very high on my wish list.

I'm also crazy about Golden Age comic book heroes in general and anything having to do with World War II. So you just know I had to love the handsome hardcover volume pictured above. I sat down and read this beauty yesterday and enjoyed every page of it. The volume collects a series of various issues of Bronze Age comics that, taken all together, tell one big, more or less, connected story. The narrative takes place in INVADERS #5 & 6, MARVEL PREMIERE #29 & 30, FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #11, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #1 and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #20.

The cast of characters include the already established Invaders and Marvel's royal family, the Fantastic Four and introduces to the world for the first time, the home front superhero team dubbed The Liberty Legion. Led by Captain America's junior partner, Bucky Barnes, the team consists of such Golden Age Timely Comics second bananas as The Patriot, Miss America, The Whizzer, Red Raven, The Thin Man, Jack Frost and The Blue Diamond.

Roy Thomas wrote each issue collected here and the artwork is provided by such stellar Marvel artistic talents as John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Frank Robbins and Don Heck.

Boy, is this one fun collection of WWII super heroic shenanigans!